Good news and campaign victories, 2002

Friends of the Earth (FoE) is mindful of the fact that almost no environmental victories are the result of the actions of a single organisation; it is alliances and collaborations between different sectors and groups that brings about both short-term victories and long-term change. With this in mind, the following are some of the victories we have helped achieve and good news from our campaigns in 2002.

Nuclear campaign

It's been an eventful 12 months in Australia's nuclear landscape. The year started with revelations of ongoing leaks and accidents at uranium mines including Jabiluka, Ranger and Olympic Dam and the industry went into damage control over allegations of environmental impacts and reporting failures.

A great victory was the announcement that Pangea Resources, proponent of a high level radioactive waste facility, were planning to abandon their plans for Australia. FoE had played an instrumental role in making this plan public through use of a leaked promotional video from the company.

The Federal government stepped up its campaign to foist a radioactive waste dump on the SA community and approved a new nuclear reactor in Sydney, despite strong local opposition and the discovery of a faultline under the construction site. Mining giant WMC announced a major expansion of operations at Olympic Dam and followed this up with a controversial company demerger which could see its uranium interests bought out by a foreign multinational.

On the positive side, the proposed uranium mine at Jabiluka has been stalled indefinitely and the troubled Honeymoon trial mine is looking increasingly shaky. With overwhelming community support behind them, the SA government has moved new legislation banning the transportation, storage or disposal of radioactive waste in the state and public support for similar legislation is growing in NSW with many regional communities on the Government's proposed radioactive waste transport routes and a fallback site for the waste dump located just outside Broken Hill.

A recent Federal Senate Inquiry exposed endemic problems in environmental regulation of the Australian uranium industry and a culture of secrecy and greenwash throughout the sector.

Grassroots initiatives including the Irati Wanti campaign of the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta (senior traditional Aboriginal women of northern South Australia) against the waste dump, FoE and ACF's visit to the proposed dump site near Woomera with a group of prominent artists - leading to an exhibition of work inspired by the trip, the recently completed FoE Nuclear Freeways Tour and a series of direct actions and mass rallies against the reactor, Pine Gap and the war on Iraq all highlight strong and growing community awareness of and opposition to all aspects of the nuclear cycle.

In the current climate this is something to be celebrated.

February 2002

Green Scissors campaign
FoE-US has, for many years, run a green scissors program, which seeks to highlight subsidies for environmentally destructive programs, and divert these into sustainable enterprises.

Some recent significant victories have included: saving around AUS$ 70 million a year with the deactivation of a nuclear plant in Washington state, around AUS$700 million a year over five years with the reform of royalty rules on oil companies, and around AUS$140 million a year, from a budget cut for the promotion of the nuclear power industry.

More info at: http://www.foe.org/camps/eco/gs/scissors.html

Logging in the Amazon
Following a FoE Brazilian Amazon campaign, the Minister of Environment in Brazil asked the federal environment agency (IBAMA) to revoke a decree which had created a new and dangerous form of logging, called "certified regime", but which had nothing to do with actual forest certification (FSC).

The decree had been commended by some environmental organisations that had not understood its actual nature. The President of IBAMA acknowledged that "a mistake had occurred" and that FoE helped "sort out a mess". There are huge pressures to open up the Amazon Basin to 'sustainable' logging, and this would have set a dangerous precedent.

Coastlines protected in Italy
The FoE group in Tuscany, working in cooperation with Forum del Parco, a local NGO coalition, was successful in gaining the demolition of three unauthorised seaside resorts which had been built in the lovely Torre del Lago. The coalition gained some significant improvements with regards to treatment of sewage waste from other resorts.

At the national level, FoE (Amici della Terra ) worked in an NGO coalition which has ensured that one measure contained in the Financial Law was scrapped. It would have allowed the privatisation of entire sections of the coastlines with corresponding massive seaside development.

March 2002

Mining victory in Costa Rica
"We are very pleased to inform you about an important achievement of the Costa Rican environmentalist movement, whose pressure and activism has resulted in a decision by the Technical Secretary (SETENA) of the Ministry of the Environment rejecting a proposal to develop oil exploration activities in front of our Caribbean Coast, considering that activity "non viable environmentally".

This result is considered by the Costa Rican environmentalists as a fundamental step in our campaign to declare (by law) our country "free of oil exploration and exploitation".

This is a significant victory in FoE¹s overall campaign to halt oil exploitation and production and to gain compensation for those communities already affected by this industry.

April 2002

Corporate victory in the U.K
FoE England¹s campaign against Amec's participation in the construction of the Yusufeli dam on the river in Coruh in Turkey met with success when the company decided to pull out of the project in March.

Starlink corn settlement
In a follow-up to the Starlink story, catalysed after FoE-US found illegal GM corn in taco shells, a US$9 million settlement has been approved by a federal judge as part of a class-action lawsuit by consumers who complained of allergic reactions. According to an Associated Press article, "Under the settlement, a group of food companies will attach $6 million in coupons, each good for a dollar off, to packages of their products. Any portion of the $6 million not used by consumers through the coupons will be paid into a fund that will be used to support as-yet-undetermined charities or food research groups."

FoE-US will continue to campaign against the illegal use of GE materials in consumer food items.

Sustainable timber production
The Environment Minister, José Carlos de Carvalho, authorised a pilot project in Acre which will extract mahogany, which is under threat of extinction. The project aims to preserve the species and manage it in a sustainable manner.

The project, which has an area of 4,000 hectares, should produce 10,000 cubic metres of timber per year for two or three years. The timber will receive the FSC 'Green Seal'. Only 10 cubic metres of mahogany per hectare will be extracted.

At the same time the federal government has an embargo on the exploration of mahogany. This is seen as being necessary to put an end to the illegal timber trade in Amazonia, and . the Acre project seeks to provide alternatives to predatory logging. Hopefully this new system will set an example for the rest of Brazil to follow. The European Union has stated that it will only buy Brazilian mahogany with proof of origin. Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazonia stated that a further five or six projects of this type would provide enough mahogany to meet national and international demand.

Brazilian NGOs create Climate Observatory
FoE - Brazilian Amazonia Network is one of a group of 26 environmental bodies and social movements who have established a 'climate observatory' in Brazil.

It will monitor climate changes in the region, and also carry out projects on carbon capture and the reduction of gases related to global warming. This worked is underpinned by a commitment to ensure the participation of civil society in the Brazilian Forum of Climate Change, influencing public policy and making the population more conscious about the issue.

Friends of the Earth launches Fire Protocol in Senador Guiomard, Brazil
The Fire: Chronic Emergency program being run by FoE - Brazilian Amazonia continues to expand its on the ground work in the Amazon. This pioneering idea seeks to educate local communities about the threat of fire to the Amazon¹s forests. It has proved highly successful in Mato Grosso and Para. The program is sponsored by the Italian government and implemented by Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazonia and over seventy local partners.

Municipal Fire Protocols have already been negotiated in Acrelândia, Capixaba, Plácido de Castro and Xapuri. In 2002, the program aims to negotiate protocols in Senador Guiomard, Brasiléia, Epitaciolândia and Assis Brasil. The negotiation of the voluntary agreement to control and prevent fire involves all sectors of local society.

A Scottish first for environmental justice
The UK's (and probably Europe's) first Higher Education Certificate in Environmental Justice was officially unveiled in Edinburgh on 22 April. The certificate course will be run jointly by FoE Scotland and Queen Margaret University College and is a major plank of FoE Scotland's three-year, ground breaking ŒAgents for Environmental Justice¹ project.

The project aims enable communities to undertake local action on sustainable development and environmental justice in a systematic way, by training and supporting 16 part-time community agents in different parts of Scotland. Agents who complete the project will be awarded an HEC in Environmental Justice, from the university - the first qualification of its kind in the UK.

More information at http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/nation/ej.html

Read news articles about the project:
http://www.sundayherald.com/24012 and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,706754,00.html

May 2002

Great news!
At its annual shareholder meeting held on May 3, Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) announced that the company will return to the Colombian government its controversial oil block located adjacent to the traditional territory of the U'wa people.

The U'wa and their supporters around the world rejoiced at this result which follows a nine year campaign to halt the oil project in the Colombian cloud forest. Known for years as the Samore block, the land at issue is located in a guerrilla controlled area of northeast Colombia, and is estimated to hold up to 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil.

FoE Colombia has played a role in this campaign, as have many FoE groups around the world.

Stopping train robbery in the UK
FoE England has launched a campaign for new investment in Britain's crumbling railways. The campaign aims to mobilise rail users across the country, using modern technology, and take their protests directly to the heart of government. Frustrated passengers sitting in delayed trains can send text messages from their mobile phone which are then converted into e-mails and delivered by FoE directly to the government.

Details can also be found at http://www.stoptrainrobbery.com.

Costa Rica declared mine free!
From Gabriel Rivas-Ducca, Friends of the Earth Costa Rica-Coecoceiba:
"In an unprecedented way, today Wednesday 8th May, 2002, on the occasion of his ascension to the Presidency of Costa Rica, the new elected President of the country, Dr. Abel Pacheco de la Espriella, has declared Costa Rica as a country free of oil exploration and exploitation and free of open pit mining."

This is due, in no small part, to the remarkable campaigns carried out by FoE Costa Rica in opposing large scale open cut mining in Costa Rica.

Italian activists showing support for Ecuador
"Dear BNL account holder, do you know that your bank finances the building of a oil pipeline in Ecuador which threatens both the environment and the people living along its route? Do you know that local communities and indigenous people protesting against this project are subjected to an harsh repression?...."

This is the message that was passed out to bank customers in 28 towns around Italy. BNL Bank is one of those funding the controversial OCP pipeline from the Amazon Basin to the Pacific coast. A long blockade in the cloud forests and vallies of Mindo has been subjected to harsh repression (background information at: http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=435&area=home ). Activist groups in many parts of the world are now encouraging the banks who are funding this project to disinvest.

This day of action marks a significant collaboration between FoE Italy and many other green groups, including Federazione Verdi Italiani and Greenpeace. Customers are being asked to request an explanation about why the bank is funding the project, and to announce that if the BNL does not stop its participation in the OCP they will close their account.

June 2002

Food and Farming: Time to Choose!
Friends of the Earth Europe launched a new campaign for urgent and radical reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) involving FoE groups in fourteen European countries.

The new Campaign 'Food and Farming: Time to Choose!' is calling on European Agriculture and Food Ministers to make crucial changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP1):

• Sustainability: farmers should have to meet Minimum Agricultural Standards in order to be eligible for CAP subsidies;
  
• Localisation: the CAP should re-localise agriculture and food production in order to reduce the high environmental, social and health costs of excessive food miles;
  
• Local Diversity: Rural Development funds should be increased and dedicated to agri-environmental programmes, regeneration of rural communities, rebuilding local infrastructures, promoting local varieties and breeds and supporting organic farming;
  
• Quality Food: CAP should be in line with EU Health Policy promoting food health, safety and nutrition. The negative health effects of agriculture and food production (e.g. heavy pesticide use) should no longer be subsidised;
  
• Fair Trade: CAP should no longer be detrimental to the interests of developing countries. The EU should ban export subsidies and demonstrate a clear commitment to sustainable agriculture.

Peruvian farmers vote against gold mine
Citizens of the Peruvian municipality of Tambogrande stated loud and clear in a referendum that they do not want the gold under their village to be mined. Seventy percent of Tambogrande's population (a total of 36,000 people) voted in the referendum, organised by the people themselves, and 98 percent of voters said 'no' to the mining proposal. Several campaigners from Friends of the Earth International were present during the referendum as international observers.

The US$315 million open-pit gold mine planned by the Canada-based Manhattan Minerals Corporation would rip apart the village of Tambogrande and displace about a third of its population. However, local farmers are determined to protect their agricultural livelihoods from destructive mining activities.

"Today was a celebration of democracy. All of these people who came to vote voluntarily have started a chain reaction of energy and empowerment," said Gloria Chicaiza of Acción Ecologica/FoE Ecuador, who observed the referendum proceedings. "The Peruvian government and Manhattan Minerals can not ignore the voice of these people, who clearly want to preserve their sustainable way of life."

July 2002

Grassroots action to protect the Amazon
The Fire: Chronic Emergency program will train 1,200 rural producers to combat small agricultural and forest fires. The training will be carried out by the Military Fire Corps of the State of Acre, in partnership with Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazonia and will take place throughout rural Acre.

Each community brigade is to be composed of, at least, ten producers trained in the use of fire-fighting equipment. The aim of the project is to install 120 community brigades which will be maintained by the rural producers associations of Senador Guiomard, Capixaba, Xapuri, Acrelândia, Brasiléia, Assis Brasil, Epitaciolândia and Plácido de Castro.

The program's co-ordinators hope that the initiative, which is still a long way from resolving all of the problems of accidental fires, at least serves to stimulate the environmental defence agencies to take a new approach to the problem of fire, as much in terms of prevention as in combat, focussed on raising the consciousness of the community.

The Fire: Chronic Emergency Program is financed by the Italian government and is co-ordinated by Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazonia. The project also has the support of rural workers unions and local government throughout Acre.

Indonesian paper company success
FoE England, Wales and Northern Ireland has calculated that since they launched their first report on the highly destructive Indonesian paper industry (Paper Tiger, Hidden Dragons), there has been an 84% drop in Indonesia pulp sales to the UK and a 61% drop in paper sales to the UK. The trade data also shows that this decline has cost APP & APRIL (the two nasty Indonesian paper companies) £41.3 million in lost sales.

As a direct result of FoE's campaign and this market pressure, APP has signed an agreement for an independent auditor to assess the quality of all their remaining forest concessions in Sumatra with a view to protecting those areas that are considered to have high conservation value. APRIL have also now halted all logging in Tesso Nilo, the largest remaining unprotected area of rainforest in Sumatra. Tesso Nilo is the last remaining viable refuge for Sumatran elephants on Sumatra. It is also home to the most diverse plant life of any rainforest on earth. There are other companies logging Tesso Nilo but APRIL was the biggest threat.

The report can be viewed at: http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/corporates/case_studies/april/index.html

FoE fire and timber projects awarded in Brazil
In June, Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazon received two out of the four "Superinteressante" awards for 2002. Superinteressante - the best-selling Brazilian magazine on science and nature - created a prize for environmental projects this year. FoE's Fire: Chronic Emergency project was awarded in the category "air" and the "Buyers' Group of Certified Forest Products" project won in the category "flora". Over 500 projects from all over Brazil took part in the contest.

August 2002

Global warming victims sue the USA for illegally funding fossil fuel projects
Friends of the Earth (FoE), Greenpeace and the City of Boulder, Colorado filed a lawsuit in the U.S.District Court in San Francisco on behalf of their members and citizens who are victims of global warming. The suit has been filed against two U.S. government agencies - the Export Import Bank (ExIm)and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Ex-Im and OPICare taxpayer funded agencies that provide financing and loans to U.S.corporations for overseas projects that commercial banks deem too risky.

This legal action - the first of its kind - alleges that OPIC and Ex-Im illegally provided over $32 billion in financing and insurance for oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants over the past ten years without assessing their contribution to global warming and their impact on the U.S. environment as required under key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA requires all federal agencies to conduct an environmental assessment of programs and project specific decisions having a significant effect on the human environment; however, according to the complaint, OPIC and ExIm have refused to review their programs' and fossil fuel projects' contributions to global warming under NEPA.

FoE, Greenpeace, and the City of Boulder view this suit as a critical first step toward compelling the Bush administration to take action against global warming, and to protect people from its dangerous effects.
For more information, including a complete list of plaintiffs, visit
www.climatelawsuit.org

September 2002

WSSD: Earth Summit
Although the WSSD was a great disappointment, one important success was achieved by Friends of the Earth ­ the inclusion of clear language on the need to establish corporate accountability.

Whites Creek Wetland win Metro Pride Award
The Leichhardt Council¹s entry, "Whites Creek Wetland Environmental Education" won the Metro Pride Award for Restoration and Renewal.

Six years ago Friends of the Earth initiated a plan to construct wetlands at Whites Creek in Annandale, an old, densely populated suburb, four kilometres from central Sydney. The inner-western suburbs of Sydney possess little remanent bushland and all the creeks have disappeared under concrete, tar and buildings. Upper Whites Creek is buried in a concrete pipe and lower Whites Creek was a sterile, polluted concrete canal.

In July 2000, Leichhardt Council gained a NSW Government Stormwater Trust Grant for $244,500 to build the wetlands, which have now been completed. FoE is now encouraging Leichhardt Council to establish an "Environmental Education Centre" in a neighbouring house owned by Council.

Romanian gold mine rejected
During the Annual Meetings of the World Bank in September, FoEI pushed hard for the Bank to stop funding fossil fuel projects.

The major success story of the week was IFC's withdrawal from the potentially very destructive Rosia Montana gold mine in Romania. A meeting with IFC staff resulted in them being bombarded by Romanian activists with facts and evidence that this was a disaster in the making. FoEI activists lobbied the World Bank President Wolfensohn directly about the mine. A number of Romanians in the FoEI team also gave Wolfensohn a pack of children's drawings about the impacts of this project. It is fair to say that it was the interventions made by the Romanians, FoEI and Bankwatch that resulted in the Bank withdrawal of the project.

For more information, visit http://www.rosiamontana.org

October 2002

Victory in Baltic Sea oil drilling campaign
FoE helped achieve a small but important victory in the campaign to stop further oil drilling in the Baltic Sea. The Polish government has decided not to sell Gdansk Refinery to the Russian Lukoil company.

Janneke Bruil, co-ordinator of the FoEI international financial institutions campaign said "on behalf of our Polish colleagues I would like to thank everybody who took a minute to send a message to the Polish government to stop oil drilling in the Baltic Sea."

Robert Cyglicki from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Bankwatch writes us that 'I think for the first time, the Prime Minister and Minister of Treasury have received more than 600 e-mail protests from all over the world.'

'This email protest action, combined with intensive media work and letter writing by Polish groups certainly put important pressure on the Polish government!'

Brazil: Urucu-Porto Velho Gas Pipeline
Ministry announces revision of provisional licence granted to Urucu pipeline project

The Environment Minister, José Carlos Carvalho, announced the creation of a working group to revise the provisional environmental licence granted to the Urucu-Porto Velho gas pipeline.

This followed campaign work by Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazonia and of local communities about the licensing process. Representatives of the Amazonian Working Group, Pastoral Land Commission and Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazonia stated that they were satisfied with the Minister's decision and that it may provide a means to overcome the faults in the licence conceded by IBAMA.

Greek supreme court blocks Canadian mine
The residents of the small town of Stratoniki in northern Greece have won a crucial victory in their struggle against the mining company that has been mining underneath their homes. On October 16, press agencies reported that the Greek Council of State unanimously ruled that the ministerial decision allowing TVX to mine underneath the village without a prior Environmental Impact Study was illegal and therefore had to be cancelled.

TVX had been illegally operating the "Mavres Petres" base metals mine underneath Stratoniki for more than a year before the permit in question was issued, in February 2002. The Mayor and local residents challenged the permit at the Council of State, the supreme administrative court that, one year earlier, had cancelled TVX's gold project at Olympias, on environmental grounds.

GM-free Britain launched
FoE England, Wales and Northern Ireland launched its GM-free Britain campaign on October 22nd. The campaign will call on the government to make Britain GM-free, and local FoE groups across the country will be approaching their local authorities to ask them to become GM-free zones. The launch coincides with the publication of a new survey showing that 57 per cent of people polled do not want the government to allow GM crops to be commercially grown across the UK.

By declaring themselves a GM-free zone, local authorities can ensure that no GM crops are grown on land which they control; adopt a GM-free policy for all goods and services for which the council is responsible; and write to the government asking them to prevent GM crops being grown in the county. Local authorities have already demonstrated their opposition to GM food and crops, and more than 50 have backed the Five Year Freeze Campaign ­ which calls for a Œfreeze¹ on the commercial growing of GM crops.

More information: http://www.gmfreebritain.com

Indonesia: fresh water action network
WALHI/FoE Indonesia, together with local NGOs, has established a new network called Fresh Water Action. Fresh water is one of the most crucial economic, political and developmental issues in Indonesia. People usually suffer the consequences of bad projects long after they have been completed. Due to the impacts felt by communities, it was decided through several consultations that there should be a network of local groups to serve as the watchdog and support the struggles happening on the ground.

The formation of the network will improve the collection by database of the cases provided by the local groups. This database will serve as a basis for strong collective action all over Indonesia.

November 2002

Mahogany tree protected in historic CITES vote
In November, the Santiago meeting of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Wild Species (CITES), decided to protect the threatened mahogany tree by regulating its trade. Supporting a dramatic motion made by Nicaragua and Guatemala, there were 68 votes in favour of protecting mahogany, 30 in against and 14 abstentions.

Codeff/FoE Chile, present as an observer in the CITES session, called this a "historic decision." FoEI has campaigned for the CITES protection of mahogany since 1994.

Further details on these items can be found at: http://www.foei.org